The Executive sent two new bills to Congress. One of them proposes extending for five years, until December 31, 2027, the validity of the laws that return the IGV and the Municipal Promotion Tax within a period not exceeding 30 business days for the mining exploration and hydrocarbons.
Although the measure seeks to boost disbursement in the sector, the tax expert Jorge Picón, and the former deputy minister of Mines, Guillermo Shinno, considered that this will not be enough to attract investors.
“With this, the company is being told that if it gets involved in risky things, such as exploration, at least they are going to return the VAT, because you no longer make exploration more expensive, but that alone is not enough because the reason why in which companies do not invest is the political crisis”, commented Picón.
However, he considered that for times of “political and social peace” it is a technical standard that has a greater impact. In August, the Ombudsman’s Office reported 209 conflicts, of which 89 were related to mining and 25 to hydrocarbons.
The former deputy minister agreed that work needs to be done on social problems and added that the government is also required to accompany the projects and not become an obstacle with statements such as those made almost a year ago by then-premier Mirtha Vásquez, who announced the closure of four mining units in Ayacucho.
The US$53 billion that make up the portfolio of mining projects is not enough to attract investors. The problems surrounding the country, revealed Guillermo Shinno, makes possible interested parties prefer to contribute through other countries.
“Tomorrow the construction of Conga and Tía María can begin, but the conflict would not allow it. There are many interests, people who take advantage and believe that the mining sector is for making money”, he stressed.
For its part, within the framework of Perumin, the president of the National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy (SNMPE), Raúl Jacobwarned that although the investment figures are positive (between January and July they add up to US$2,781 million according to the Ministry of Energy and Mines), after Quellaveco there is no other similar project that sustains the flow of new capital in the sector.
He recalled that in previous years there were two or three projects that entered construction in a correlative way, but today the panorama is totally different, since in the short term nothing is planned.
“Faced with this situation, we must seek the necessary consensus in the country and restore the diminished trust between the State, the private sector and civil society to make the portfolio of identified mining projects viable,” he said.
DEBT COLLECTION
The other project that the Executive sent to Parliament seeks to give a greater dissuasive effect to the regulations of the Tax Code in order to avoid the dilation or postponement of the collection of tax debts.
Jorge Picón explained that this measure will have no impact on cases involving large companies or on cases already prosecuted.
Data
-MMG Las Bambas plans to invest more than US$2 billion over the next five years.
-The general manager of the company, Edgardo Orderique, reported that the cost of the conflict from 2016 to date is 528 days with interrupted operations.
